Peace Meal

Legend has it that the first fondue meal occurred during the Reformation in the 16th century, when the Protestant German Swiss and the Catholics of central Switzerland called a truce, and met on the regional border to share a communal meal of bread dipped into a cheese and milk soup.

A rather practical--and the Swiss are definitely practical--explanation is that fondue was created to revive cheese and bread hardened during long cold mountain winters. Another theory is that fondue evolved from the rustic farmhouse dish Raclette, cheese melted in a wood fire, scraped onto a plate and eaten with boiled potatoes, bread and pickled onions.